Christmas Storybooks For Pre-Schoolers #1

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Earlier this year I was sent a large selection of books from Little Tiger Press to review and I have to say that they remain The Boy's favourite storybooks for bedtimes and sofa-snuggle sessions. I think the reason that he is so taken with them (and that we enjoy reading them with him) so much is down to the innocent stories, invariable featuring animals brought to life with personalities and names (they remind me slightly of the Brambly Hedge books of my own childhood), and the beautiful illustrations.

I've been sent some of their Christmas books for The Boy and us to enjoy, and I want to share them with you. Not because this is a review and I have to, but because I truly believe they are delightful books which your own littlies will love.

I've Seen Santa!
In "I've Seen Santa!" (by David Bedford & Tim Warnes) it is Christmas Eve and Little Bear is greatly looking forward to seeing Santa, but is so concerned that he might forget about him that he decides to stay up after Mummy Bear and Daddy Bear have gone to bed to check he comes. Throughout the course of the night (before Santa arrives) he catches both Daddy and Mummy Bear checking that everything is ok because they too are worried. Will Little Bear get to see Santa?

This book is available in both a normal paperback, and a paperback with a story CD read by Lesley Sharp and Jason Isaacs, who read the story beautifully. We've got a few story CDs and the Little Tiger Press ones are some of the best because of the way that they read the story through twice, allowing for the child to follow it page by page on the second reading.

This picture book and CD set has an RRP of £7.99 but is on offer with Amazon for £5.99 at the moment.

The Best Christmas Ever!
Millicent Mouse is looking forward to Christmas greatly, and with only one day left to prepare she busies herself making apple-nut pie and hot honey punch, and gathering ivy and berries to decorate her home. While she is out in the crunchy snow, she discovers a great many animals who need her help and kindness, which she willingly gives. That night she goes to bed without anything prepared for the next day, but the contentment of knowing she's helped her friends. Will they repay the kindness?

"The Best Christmas Ever!" (by Marni McGee & Gavin Scott) is a heart-warming tale of friendship and selflessness which helps to illustrate to children one of the important aspects of Christmas: giving without expectation of reward. RRP £5.99, Amazon has it for £4.49.

Dear Santa
"Dear Santa" (by Kathryn White & Polona Lovsin) tells the story of Little Bear (a different one to the one above!) who, while playing in the snow, finds a letter addressed to Santa. Distressed that someone might not receive their Christmas presents if the letter doesn't get to Santa, Little Bear sets off with Rabbit to deliver the letter by hand (or paw, rather). Along the way they meet a host of helpful friends who help them in their adventure, but once lost in a snow blizzard who can rescue them?

In this hardback book there is also a letter-writing kit so that pre-schoolers can write (or draw) their own letter to Santa, which is a lovely touch and makes this book feel that much more special. RRP of £7.99, available from Amazon.

The Very Snowy Christmas
Big Mouse and Little Mouse are busy on Christmas Eve making food for the next day's festivities and decorating their home. Little Mouse is eager to find some beries and eventually, after straying a bit further from home than normal, finds some but is alarmed when 'the sky starts falling down' around him. He rushes home through the 'sky' which has settled onto the ground to ask Big Mouse what to do, but his journey home is full of new discoveries which he needs some reassurance about.

"The Very Snowy Christmas" (by Diana Hendry & Jane Chapman) introduces snow to young children in a way which many can identify with. This is also a picture book and CD set read by Lesley Sharp and Jason Isaacs, and is available from Amazon for £7.19 (RRP £7.99)

Santa's Special Letter

This one is my favourite book out of the five for the interactive qualities throughout. "Santa's Special Letter' (by Josephine Collins & Gail Yerrill) tells of Father Christmas' final preparations in getting the presents ready for all the chilldren (and creatures) of the world and loading up his sleigh. When he starts to check them off against his list, he discovers that he has missed a letter and hasn't got the present ready. His helpers, including Pip the Mouse, help him to find the red and yellow letter so that he can make that elusive present. Will he have it ready in time?

One of the best features of a book for pre-schoolers is encouraging interaction with the book and interest in reading on to discover the story. In "Santa's Special Letter" there are red and yellow envelopes scattered throughout the pages, each containing a letter to be read, and plenty of flaps to lift and a beautiful final pop-up to enjoy. Top marks for this book! RRP £8.99 with an Amazon price of £5.39. Bargain, buy it now!

Little Tiger Press has a whole heap of Christmas picture books which you can enjoy with your children, if you don't fancy one of those I've highlighted, please explore the others in the range; there's bound to be one for your family!

I was sent these books for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

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Stocking Filler Storybooks (Review)

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I love children's books at the best of times, something The Boy has inherited, but the Christmas versions of popular classic books or series that are available are even more attractive to my inner magpie.

We've been sent three books for The Boy for Christmas:

Thomas & Friends: Snowy Tracks

The island of Sodor is covered in a thick blanket of snow and the engines have been told to be careful and not to go over any big hills. Gordon doesn’t listen, he’s sure that he’ll be strong enough to steam over every hill he comes to. But it isn’t long before Gordon fi nds out that snow is much more dangerous than it looks!

Everything's Rosie: The Last Snowball

When Big Bear wakes up from his deep winter sleep, he’s sad to fi nd that he’s missed out on all the fun that snow can bring. Rosie and her friends do everything they can to do recreate winter fun, but sledging and snow angels don’t work without snow. Will they find a way to cheer up Big Bear?

Mr. Men Meet Father Christmas

When Little Miss Tiny secretly wishes she could visit Father Christmas she doesn’t expect her wish to come true. But magical things really do happen at Christmas and crazy things too when you’re with the Mr. Men and the Little Miss! Complete with celebrating sheep, yellow snow, sneezing elves and a very sooty Father Christmas, this is another classic Mr. Men story.

The thing that I like best about these books (apart from them being about Christmas, and having sparkly embossed bits on them) is that they fit perfectly into handbags, so that if we're out and about over the festive period, then I've instantly got a book for him to read and enjoy. They also fit brilliantly into stockings to make perfect fillers.

And with a RRP of £2.99, they're not going to break the bank this Christmas.

I was sent these books for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

The Christmas Tag

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I haven't done a meme in ages. Like months, possible even a year. I went through a stage of being tagged in every single one going and I put my foot down forcefully and ignored the tags. (Sorry taggers)

However, I like the look of this one, I'm in the mood for Christmas so I'm having a go! (I also want something different on my blog in amongst all these sponsored posts, sorry for them but Christmas is coming, ya'know?)

Q1. What's your favourite thing about Christmas?
Seeing my son playing with his grandparents and cousins and exploring his new toys, while enjoying sparkling lights, scrumptious food and Christmas tv on in the background. You know that Asda advert where the mum walks out of the kitchen and sees everyone with hats on in the living room playing together? It made me cry because that's what I love about Christmas.
Q2. What's your favourite make up look for the festive season?
Foundation, lipstick and black mascara are my staples aside from eye-shadow and smoky eye-liner. At Christmas time, I'll have slightly heavier smokiness and bronzer all over. I'm a creature of habit.
Q3. Real or fake tree?
Fake. Real ones bring my arms out in prickles plus I can't be bothered to hoover up after them. Our fake one is a good one with a central pole which you hang the branches onto, we bought it in the B&Q sale seven years ago in January; it was £120 to £60 to £30!
Q4. Giving presents or receiving them?
Absolutely giving them. I spend a lot of time choosing and I like to see the recipient's face when they open their parcel up.
Q5. Do you open your presents Christmas morning or evening?
Morning! What is this nonsense talk of evening?! Why in Santa's name would you wait?!
Q6. Handmade Christmas cards or bought?
Handmade! In the past we've made our own photocards and had them processed. This year, I can't seriously subject The Boy to another costume, however I do have another idea in mind which will be printed onto photo-cards. The Boy will also make cards from himself to his family members.
Q7. What's your favourite Christmas film?
'The Polar Express' although I'm quite partial to Arthur Christmas too!
Q8. What's your favourite Christmas food?
The buffet style tea which we have on Christmas Day and on Boxing Day. If I could spend my life eating buffets, I'd be a) enormous and b) a very happy woman.

I was tagged by Adventures of a Yorkshire Mum, the original post came from Makeup-Pixi3.

In return I am tagging:

Flashback Friday: The One About Friends

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This time last year I was preparing to reveal myself to a bunch of people that I'd never met before.

I'll be honest, I was wetting myself with nerves.

Last Autumn, Tots100 announced that they were going to be holding a bloggers' party down in Butlins in Bognor Regis. Very quickly Multiple Mummy, The Crazy Kitchen, Mummy Mishaps and I decided that we had to go and booked our places. We started making plans to have a fantastic family weekend; celebrating Christmas with a bunch of like-minded people and meeting new friends.

Messages to the aforementioned ladies let them know how worried I was about 'coming out', especially as I'd only met The Crazy Kitchen beforehand. Kerry and Jenny reassured me that everything would be ok and they'd hold my hand, metaphorically and literally. Mobile numbers were exchanged and I looked forward to meeting them both.

The weekend arrived and I really need not have worried at all. All of the bloggers I met were friendly, genuine and warm. Meeting Jenny that weekend ensured the start of a real-life friendship that has seen us get together several times over the past year, on our own and with our families.

However, I want to focus on Kerry here. Meeting Kerry was a joy. From the moment I rang her mobile in the hotel foyer to find out where she was, it felt like I'd known her for years. Blogging is a bizarre world; we read about each other's lives, we see photos of our family and we natter away. By the time we meet in person, the inital small-talk is out of the way. Kerry and I had been chatting since she first started blogging and had asked for some advice from me; we also have similar age boys and we both live in the world of education.

We sat next to each other during the Tots100 meal and had a good giggle and very indepth conversation. We may have also both partaken of numerous glasses of Tia Maria and cokes…

Due to our geographical locations Kerry and I couldn't meet up many times, but we did see each other at Britmums in June. I might have been utterly bored rigid during one of the sessions in the main hall and was openly tweeting so (sorry Britmums!). At one point when I hoped the session was ending, the speaker opened up the floor to questions and I might have sighed a little loudly. I realised I'd been audible when I heard a few giggles from my left. I glanced up and was greeted by the sight of Kerry laughing her head off at me .

That image is the one that has stayed in my head since the beautiful and joyful Kerry suffered a brain aneurysm in August. I had just finished reading about her day out to Peppa Pig World with her gorgeous family when I received a message to tell me about the terrible news.

Kerry is battling valiantly to recover, but is suffering setback after setback on the road to returning to her family. On Saturday 24th November 2012 at 10pm, the blogging world will unite to think about Kerry and send her positive healing thoughts to aide her recovery.

Thing is, I haven't stopped thinking of her every day.

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Linking up to Flashback Friday at Mummy Mishaps and The Real Housewife of Suffolk County

With thanks to Tots100 for two of the photos above

Sadly, the beautiful Kerry died on 14th December 2012. She fought so valiantly for so long, but the infections kept on coming and in the end she couldn't fight anymore. Ever since I heard, I had felt so inordinately sad about the loss of such a fantastic mother to her children, especially as they are so young, and that her soulmate no longer has her to cherish. The memories I've described above have stayed with me and I know that all of her friends and her family have a multitude of happy memories of such a special person.

Home-Made Christmas Tree Decorations

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Every year since The Boy was born, we buy him his own special Christmas decoration (to help build up a collection for first adult Christmas tree) and write the year on the bottom of it. I always aim to buy traditional style decorations that have a story to them and he's fascinated by them. This year he's old enough to start making his own decorations and I can't wait to see our Christmas tree filled with his home-made decorations in the future.

You'll need:

  • green felt
  • red felt
  • green or red ribbon
  • green, white and red buttons
  • felt holly leaves and berries (I bought these from Baker Ross)
  • PVA glue
  • scissors

felt decorations

  1. Draw two large circles (one red and one green) and then draw a small inner circle in the middle (I used a large coffee mug rim to draw around).
  2. Cut two smaller circles out of the green felt, and two from the red. These will also need an inner circle, but this must be bigger than the inner circle on the large red or green circle.

Holly wreath decoration:

  1. Cut a 20cm length of ribbon and feed it through the middle of the large green circle, glue it into place and tie the end.
  2. Glue the red circles into place over the ribbon on each side of the large green circle.
  3. Stick holly leaves and berries over the top of the red small circles on both sides and leave to dry.

felt decorations

Button wreath decoration:

  1. Cut a 20cm length of ribbon and feed it through the middle of the large red circle, glue it into place and tie the end.
  2. Glue the green circles into place over the ribbon on each side of the large red circle.
  3. Glue a selection of red, green and white buttons over the small green circles on both sides.

christmas decorations

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'Counting Down To Christmas' is a craft bloggers link-up held each week in the eight weeks preceeding the big day itself. Each week we will be posting a different Christmas craft activity.

Rainy Day Mum ~ Mummy Mummy Mum! ~ Life at the Zoo ~ The Fairy and The Frog~ Jennifer’s Little World ~ Making Boys Men ~ Mama Pea Pod

The Scent Of Christmas

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Christmas is a special time of year for me and I love the whole festive season. I can't wait to get the decorations out and dress up the house with sparkling lights and shiny decorations everywhere; the main living areas are alive with colour and twinklinh fairy lights. To add to this sensory overload, it's the one time of year that I use scented candles to add the slightest hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, pine, velvety wine and all the other warm Winter smells.

Potters Crouch is a company who create scented candles and these are like the Hotel Chocolat of candles; exquisite.

"Each candle is handmade, hand–labelled and hand–finished in our 300 year old converted barn nestled in the heart of the English countryside in Hertfordshire…

We believe our candles are superior to any others crafted in the UK as we only ever use the finest of ingredients and original scents created exclusively for us. With our added special ingredients we are also able to offer you candles with a superior burn time of approximately 50 hours…"

I was sent two of the seasonal candles: Festive Spice and the aptly named Christmas.

festive spice

Festive Spice has an orange, mulled wine and eastern spices scent to it and is finished with small green and red crystals on the top. Christmas has spices blended with pine forests and rich orange scents with gold crystals on the top. These additional decorations really make the candles seem that little bit extra-special along with the labels which have come from hand-drawn prints.

I can't wait to crack them open come December, and with fifty hours burn time each, they're bound to last for the festive season.

The Potters Crouch Christmas candles are available individually for £8.50 or in a set of five (with three other fragrances) for £35.50.

I was sent these for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

"When I Dream Of Christmas" (Book Review)

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Christmas is such a special time of year for young families; the excitement is almost tangible, the cold Winter days are filled with laughter and squeals of delight as the magic weaves its way through each new exploration. Our house is no different to anyone else's, stories are delivered through elf-filled films and books with Santa delivering presents galore.

Every family has their favourite books and we are no exception. I've discovered a new book which is an absolute delight to share with The Boy.

In the same style of When I Dream Of ABC the book covers a different element of Christmas, and Winter in general, on each double page. These associations (like sledging, holly, carol singers, Christmas cards) are depicted in beautiful, full-colour illustrations on one page and explained in a humorous prose on the opposite page.

I really like the range of Christmas associations covered in a fun and friendly manner, it's definitely a Christmas treasure to keep for years to come. The cover of the book is embossed with 'snow glitter' and the pages inside are thick and glossy.

'When I Dream Of Christmas' is available from Top That! Publishing for the excellent price of £6.99

I was sent this item for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

Naughty Or Nice?

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Every Christmas with The Boy brings new magic and wonder.

His first Christmas was awash with wide-eyed wonder at the lights and sounds. It was a riot of colour and he couldn't get enough of it all. He also crawled for the first time within days of the big day. On his second Christmas he helped me to 'decorate' the tree, even though it had already been done, and the 'ope' (-ning) of presents was a magical experience. Last year was the first year that he understood the concept of Father Christmas coming and bringing us presents, and that it was a special day.

However, this Christmas?

I can't wait.

The Boy's started to ask when it is and we've talked about it being after Autumn (which is lasting an awfully long time in this house, all the way up until December 1st!). With the shops all decked out in tinsel and goodies to buy, it's hard for him not know that it's going to start happening soon. With our involvement in the 'Countdown to Christmas' in the craft blogging world, we've already been making cards and pictures, I have no fear that my son does not understand the concept of glitter!

The 'carrot' that is used by so many parents of Father Christmas bringing presents to good children is one that I never thought I'd use, but there has been occasion over the past fortnight when I've had to once or twice! I'm very keen for him to understand that he's not just going to receive a load of presents just 'because'. This is the first year that we're going to attempt to create a letter to the jolly man himself (who can of course interpret a whole load of squiggles into the toys that The Boy means) and in return he will receive a letter from Santa Claus himself. The fact that it will be a video with Santa actually saying his name and referring to events that have happened throughout the year will completely delight The Boy and drive home that Father Christmas is always watching!

Do you write letters to Santa with your child? Does he write one back?

This post contains a sponsored link.

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